The fossil plant described is a mould formed in a Clayband Ironstone nodule by the leaf cushions of a palæozoic arborescent Lycopod. It exhibits the unaltered three-dimensional shape of the surface of the tree-trunk. The description adds to the known facts about the leaf cushions and their diagnostic features. The specimen has been placed in a new species of the genus Sublepidophloios, Sublepidophloios ventricosus.

A new method of making casts from such fossil moulds is described which involves the use of an elastic, re-meltable plastic compound. An examination of casts made by this method indicates that the plant fragment described was fossilized with the minimum amount of compression and distortion.

An account is given of the species Psilophyton robustius and the relevant literature is reviewed. There follows an illustrated description of a relatively well-preserved fertile, branched specimen. The morphological features of this specimen are discussed with reference to the earlier descriptions by Dawson and others. It has been found necessary to institute a new genus as Psilophyton is now apparently inappropriate for this species. The name given to this new genus is Trimerophyton, which includes the one species Trimerophyton robustius (Dawson) Hopping.

Seldom, if ever, in the long histories of the Scottish Universities can there have chanced a centenary such as we now commemorate. In the same year, 1854, there died in Edinburgh two celebrated occupants of the Regius Chair of Natural History in the University, one full of years, with solid achievement and half a century of academic service behind him, the other in the first year of his Professorship, in the full tide of life, whose great accomplishment held promise of greater still; the one the master, the other his brilliant pupil and successor—Robert Jameson and Edward Forbes. Each of these men, in his own way, added enormously to the factual stock of knowledge, but the greater contribution was that each, by precept and example, helped to modify and mould the outlook of naturalists throughout the civilized world.

A description is given of a new genus of mammal-like reptile, Mirotenthes, of which a remarkably complete and well-preserved skeleton was collected in 1936 by Professor Camp of the University of California, from the late Permian deposits of the South African Karroo.

Unlike the majority of Permian mammal-like reptiles, Mirotenthes was an agile form of small dimensions. Many of the skeletal characters exhibit a significant approach towards the mammalian threshold. The limb structure is very advanced and the digital formula is mammalian. The differentiation of ribs to form a definite rib-cage of mammalian type is particularly noteworthy and may indicate the presence in this genus of a mammalian respiratory mechanism.

The systematic study of this complete skeleton does much to bridge the gap between the primitive basal groups of mammal-like reptiles and the advanced Triassic groups from which the mammals derive. It has been known for many years that small, fast-moving carnivorous forms were present in the late Permian fauna, but the evidence has been fragmentary. The complete skeleton described in this paper throws new light on these hitherto poorly known genera.

The subject is a very wide one and for the purposes of a single contribution some selection is essential. Much might be, indeed has been, said concerning the adaptations relating to sexual and reproductive behaviour in the Primates, notably in a long series of contributions by Zuckerman and his co-workers (especially in his summaries of 1932 and 1933). Attention might also be made to the structural adaptations associated with toilet habits. But I have restricted my remarks to three aspects alone, paying particular attention to behavioural patterns in which I have been personally interested, or structural details which I have myself made the subject of contributions to the literature.

I shall confine myself to I. Adaptations associated with the Arboreal Habit; II. Adaptations connected with Dietetic Habits; III. Adaptations correlated with Social Organization.

The alkaloids of Ragwort (Senecio jacobæa Linn.) are known to be hepatotoxic to farm animals and man. Survivors invariably show permanent impairment of the liver, manifested by cirrhosis and its sequelæ. Senecio infusions may be consumed in small amounts in Britain as a herbal remedy, and in South Africa the Bantu frequently incorporate them in native medicines. It has been shown that these tribes have a high incidence of cirrhosis and primary liver cancer, and there is good evidence that their deficient diet may play an important part in sensitizing the liver to toxins. In the present study, the ragwort alkaloid seneciphylline has been administered by injection to fowls maintained on both adequate and deficient diets, and further fowls received the dried plant in their food. A significant proportion of these birds subsequently developed primary liver tumours. Although there was a higher mortality rate in both treated and controls fed the deficient diet, there was no evidence of a greater tendency to develop liver tumours compared with the birds on the balanced diet.

It is also suggested that the condition known as “cavernous angioma” of the liver of cattle and sheep in Britain may be due to ingestion of ragwort in sub-lethal amounts.